Category: Joe Jankowski

Inviting The Data Collectors In: Facebook’s New Portal Device Is Company’s Ultimate Trust Test By Joseph Jankowski Facebook’s new Portal in-home calling device has just gone on sale in the United States. While there isn’t yet much data showing the level of fanfare for the new product, one thing is certain: that data will reveal if Facebook has any trust left with consumers. The video-call device is coming to market right as Facebook enters a trust crisis with its users who have witnessed the company experience data breaching that has reached far…

“Colonizing Experiment in Surveillance Capitalism”: Privacy Expert Resigns From Google-Backed Smart City Project Over Surveillance Concerns By Joseph Jankowski A privacy expert tasked with protecting personal data within a Google-backed smart city project has resigned as her pro-privacy guidelines would largely be ignored by participants. “I imagined us creating a Smart City of Privacy, as opposed to a Smart City of Surveillance,” Ann Cavoukian, the former privacy commissioner of Ontario, wrote in a resignation letter to Google sister company Sidewalk Labs. “I felt I had no choice because I had been told by…

“Catastrophic”: EU Passes Copyright Directive Including Internet “Link Tax” and “Upload Filter” By Joseph Jankowski The European Parliament has passed a controversial copyright directive that contains provisions which force tech giants to install content filters and sets in place a potential tax on hyperlinking. The bill was passed in a final vote of 438 – 226 and will need to be implemented by individual EU member states. Critics of the directive have been laser-focused on two key provisions: Articles 11 and 13, which they have dubbed the “link tax” and “upload filter.”…

EU Enters “Final Stage” Of Crafting Bill Forcing Big Tech Censorship By Joseph Jankowski The European Union is in the final stages of crafting legislation that will force big tech and Internet companies to censor “extremist” content and cooperate with law enforcement, Reuters reports. The bill is expected to be released by the end of the month and will absolutely require companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter to swiftly remove any content considered terroristic from their platforms. In March, the European Commission told such companies that they had three months to…

Facebook Building “War Room” to Monitor Midterm Elections in Real-Time By Joseph Jankowski Facebook is gearing up for the upcoming midterm elections by building a physical “war room” in order to fight off “bad actors” who wish to influence voters. Facebook’s head of civic engagement, Samidh Chakrabarti, told NBC in an interview published Tuesday that the company was in a better place than it was in 2016 in regards to fighting “misinformation” and “fake news.” “I think we are in a much better place than we were in 2016. But it is an arms race. And…

Facebook User Engagement Dives As Social Media Alternatives Boom By Joseph Jankowski As Facebook continues to grapple with the revelations of private user data being leaked to Cambridge Analytica, and taking part in the suspicious deplatforming of Alex Jones, the social media giant has taken a double-digit hit on key metrics. According to Wednesday night data from website ranking service Alexa, Facebook is down 10% on Daily Time on Site. Daily Time on Site is a measurement of the daily amount of time each visitor has spent on the platform. Zuckerberg’s brainchild is also up…

Social Score: Facebook Now Rating Trustworthiness of Users By Joseph Jankowski Facebook is now rating the trustworthiness of its users as a part of the effort to tackle “fake news.” The new trustworthiness score, which was first reported in the Washington Post, will work on a scale of zero to 1 and is one of thousands of new behavioral tools Facebook uses to monitor its users with. From the WaPo: Facebook developed its reputation assessments as part of its effort against fake news, Tessa Lyons, the product manager who is…

NATO Launches Largest War Games to be Staged in Latvia By Joseph Jankowski NATO has launched the largest war games to take place in Latvia since the country became independent in 1918. The military games, which have been in preparation for four years, are scheduled to include military and police addressing “spontaneous” unrest in Russian-populated towns, reports RT. “After four years of intensive preparations, this will be the largest military training exercise since the restoration of Latvia’s independence in which we will test the armed forces’ readiness to defend Latvia…